All with the exception of Beast were part of Steve's first Secret Avengers team during Civil War. It makes sense to me that this is a team that he gathers (of those not in "Avengers" anyway) now that he's back.

Well, that's unexpected. I thought SA was Brubaker's pet project. But I'm excited. Spencer's THUNDER Agents is awesome and, unfortunately, Brubaker's been utter s*** on this series so far. Looking forward to Spencer's take on the team and, even better, Deodato being sent packing in favor of Eaton. Good times ahead, it seems.

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"This I grant to you: You may tell your grandchildren that you stood for a time against the mighty Thor."
- Marvel Heroes

Never heard of Spencer but his wiki page says he sent several pitches to Quesada for a Black Cat Marvel Knights book years ago. I can't access the article from work but a new voice to the book sounds nice. Bru's stint was an official fail. I was hoping for DnA, McCann or somebody like that but whatever. I don't think Spencer is Marvel exclusive, I'm surprised he's getting a big franchise book like that.

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Originally Posted by C. Lee

This is a message board...no one killed your mother or had sex with your dog.....try to move on in life.

It is a bit surprising that Brubaker is calling it a run after a year. Even Bendis lasted 19 issues on MIGHTY AVENGERS. That said, I don't mind the new blood. As talented a writer Brubaker is, he isn't a team book writer. He's writing STEVE ROGERS & FRIENDS and that can get old. Hopefully Nick Spencer is able to occasionally focus on other characters. Like ones who will never get their own books again, like Valkyrie or Ant-Man.

Sales wise, this is a disaster. Nick Spencer is a total no-name, and what once was a Top 30 book will probably fall to cancellation numbers in less than a year. Spencer may have about ten issues before the axe falls; he'd better give it his all.

It may be possible that Brubaker will launch his own book for Bucky, but I doubt it would sell if he is no longer Captain America. Steve Rogers can sell on his own, at least as head of an Avengers team or in a 4 issue mini. But can Bucky? His only tries were CIVIL WAR era WINTER SOLDIER one-shots, and everything sold back then.

I do hope he gives a definite conclusion to the Shadow Council. They're like the Headmen, only without the gaudy charm.

I don't know, it says Steve has to "recruit a new group of heroes" in that article. I imagine that means a pretty major roster shake-up. Not sure whether that'll be good or bad. Valkyrie's presence on this team is awesome in concept, but in practice she's been a background player who just shows up to hit things now and then; maybe she'd be better off just leaving the team.

__________________
"This I grant to you: You may tell your grandchildren that you stood for a time against the mighty Thor."
- Marvel Heroes

Ideally, the roster would remain Rogers, Carter, Beast, Black Widow, Ant-Man, and Valkyrie. You can't have the team without Rogers; Beast's rare loan from the X-Books has to be continued, and all the rest of the characters no longer have ongoing series. Given that Bendis has promoted Moon Knight as an Avenger in teasers for his ongoing, he may remain as well. War Machine is getting his own comic and a new armor, so his tenure may be done.

Sadly, I can imagine Valkyrie going to keep the team "low powered", which is frankly stupid. The NEW AVENGERS are supposed to be the "street team" yet they have Luke Cage, Ben Grimm and Ms. Marvel. Just let the Secret Avengers battle worthier opponents than a Class 2 soldier, a Nick Fury LMD, some really old cowboy and a lot of minions. They're fighting Onslaught in another comic, for instance.

Dread, Spencer is doing both the new War Machine comic and Secret Avengers makes me think he'll stay on the team and you can get very loose cross overs between the issues? Of course you might be right too, who knows. =)

__________________"I'm not always hooked on a feeling but when i am, i'm high on believing!"Thoughts & Rambles

Oh man, Spencer's been pretty awesome. If the price dropped back to $2.99 coming on board I may check it out, but the price will probably keep me away. I've got Infinite Vacation and Thunder Agents to give me my Spenc-fix, though.

Also, what's this about Cap going back to #1 and a Bucky title? Has that been confirmed or informed speculation?

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"When you see a John Woo film, it's comforting to know how shallow the world really is. The full force of the manly coolness factor with a peice of nose hair sticking out from the tiny crack between manly and cool, exposes the thinness of the male hormone factor. It takes an idiot to do cool things. That's why it's cool."

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I was a North American Fall Webworm in my past life. Those were the good old days.

One last question on this thread: "Thor" is not the only Marvel Studios movie hitting this summer. Is there a chance that come July, we'll be seeing "Captain America" get "Fractioned"?

Brevoort: I would say that there is a better than average chance that when there's a Cap movie in theaters, we'll want to do something in publishing to give people exactly the same kind of entry point they had with "Invincible Iron Man" and now with "Mighty Thor." The Vegas oddsmakers would give you very good numbers on that.

__________________"I'm not always hooked on a feeling but when i am, i'm high on believing!"Thoughts & Rambles

Moon Knight has barely done anything, but with him getting his own title he might be booted out for Bendis to go all Bendis withouth restrictions.

No one cares about Moon Knight.

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Originally Posted by Dread

Ideally, the roster would remain Rogers, Carter, Beast, Black Widow, Ant-Man, and Valkyrie. You can't have the team without Rogers; Beast's rare loan from the X-Books has to be continued, and all the rest of the characters no longer have ongoing series. Given that Bendis has promoted Moon Knight as an Avenger in teasers for his ongoing, he may remain as well. War Machine is getting his own comic and a new armor, so his tenure may be done.

Sadly, I can imagine Valkyrie going to keep the team "low powered", which is frankly stupid. The NEW AVENGERS are supposed to be the "street team" yet they have Luke Cage, Ben Grimm and Ms. Marvel. Just let the Secret Avengers battle worthier opponents than a Class 2 soldier, a Nick Fury LMD, some really old cowboy and a lot of minions. They're fighting Onslaught in another comic, for instance.

A low-powered team is exactly the wrong way to go. The whole reason I've been hating Brubaker's run is that he's treating the book as a regular espionage title instead of an Avengers espionage title. The difference is stuff like the first arc's premise: regular espionage teams sneak into opposing governments' facilities, but Avengers espionage teams sneak onto frickin' Mars. The series needs someone with a good grasp of espionage action but also a good grasp of the bats***-crazy ideas that make big superhero comics so fun. Spencer seems to have both down pretty well, so I'm hoping he won't disappoint me by shedding the powerhouses of the team. That'd be strike 1 right there.

__________________
"This I grant to you: You may tell your grandchildren that you stood for a time against the mighty Thor."
- Marvel Heroes

__________________
"When you see a John Woo film, it's comforting to know how shallow the world really is. The full force of the manly coolness factor with a peice of nose hair sticking out from the tiny crack between manly and cool, exposes the thinness of the male hormone factor. It takes an idiot to do cool things. That's why it's cool."

Quote:

I was a North American Fall Webworm in my past life. Those were the good old days.

Dread, Spencer is doing both the new War Machine comic and Secret Avengers makes me think he'll stay on the team and you can get very loose cross overs between the issues? Of course you might be right too, who knows. =)

I actually didn't know that. If Spencer is writing both IRON MAN 2.0 and SECRET AVENGERS, it does make sense to keep Rhodey along.

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Originally Posted by TheCorpulent1

No one cares about Moon Knight.

A low-powered team is exactly the wrong way to go. The whole reason I've been hating Brubaker's run is that he's treating the book as a regular espionage title instead of an Avengers espionage title. The difference is stuff like the first arc's premise: regular espionage teams sneak into opposing governments' facilities, but Avengers espionage teams sneak onto frickin' Mars. The series needs someone with a good grasp of espionage action but also a good grasp of the bats***-crazy ideas that make big superhero comics so fun. Spencer seems to have both down pretty well, so I'm hoping he won't disappoint me by shedding the powerhouses of the team. That'd be strike 1 right there.

Avengers espionage teams also need to battle actual villains.

The irony is I think Abnett & Lanning handle a similar premise better in HEROES FOR HIRE. They do a lot of "typical street crime" plots but make sure to add Marvel Universe twists - like an Atlantian drug ring or demonically powered super-handguns hitting the market. And that run in 3 issues has had more villains.

I'm not a fan of breaking up the roster, personally. They just need someone who can handle any character on it besides Steve Rogers.

In many ways "low powered" seems to translate into "no imagination for epic stuff". Seriously, think of every run of anything you thought of where powers went away.

I care about Moon Knight, since Bendis is, as feared, totally ****ing him up in his next ongoing, so I can really only tolerate the character written by others.

Surprised that Bru's going, but not entirely disappointed. The guy just never panned out in this title. I'm not familiar with this Spencer guy, but everyone who's read his stuff here seems pretty enthused.

Beast is one of the more popular members of the team; it would be short sighted to hand him back to the X-office, who have proven to be unwilling to share characters who aren't Wolverine or Deadpool for very long.

Beast is the resident geek. He's gotta be there to do all the science-talk.

Oooh! They should do one of those obligatory spy show episodes where the field agents are taken out of play and it's all left up to the geek to handle things. Only the geek is Beast so he handles things like a total badass. Maybe he calls in Brand to help, too.

__________________
"This I grant to you: You may tell your grandchildren that you stood for a time against the mighty Thor."
- Marvel Heroes

To be fair, Beast actually enters the field in some SECRET AVENGERS guest appearances in other books. He was part of the field squad in VENGEANCE OF THE MOON KNIGHT #10 and in ONSLAUGHT UNLEASHED right now - he even has some banter with Eric O'Grady.

It is never a good sign when a team assembled by a big name creator is handled better in most guest appearances away from that. That was the first sign that it wasn't Bendis' idea of NEW AVENGERS that was bad; it was how he handled it. While Brubaker is not that bad, he isn't an ideal team writer.

I'm still waiting for Beast and Valkyrie to share some words, since they were both Defenders together on a squad Beast led. Of course, that would require focus on characters other than Sharon Carter or Steve Rogers.